ne figure is even more dowdy
than she is in the morning. For then she is likely to be at least neat
and tidy, and she may wear a gown that is comparatively unobtrusive in
form and color. Indeed, the best dress that the average Englishwoman
wears is her simple street dress, which is apt to be of some sober
color--black, gray, light or dark, or a dark soft blue, and to be
entirely without ornament--not a flounce or a bow, or even a button
except for use, with a bonnet, or oftener a hat, equally sober in tint
and in form. And this is best for her; in this she is safe. If she
would not risk offence, let her enfold herself thus. Let her by no
means wander forth into the wilderness of mingled colors: "that way
madness lies." This outward show is in no way the consequence of
carelessness. No one in England seems to be careless about anything,
least of all a woman about her dress. It is helpless, hopeless,
elaborated dowdyism. And yet as I write there rise up against me, with
sweet, reproachful faces, figures draped worthily of their beauty; and
more could not be said even for the work of Worth himself. One of many
I particularly remember with whom I took five o'clock tea at the house
of one of the Queen's chaplains, and who bore a name that may be found
in the "Peveril of the Peak." Her bright intelligence and her rich
beauty (her oval cheek was olive) would have made me indifferent to her
dress had it been a homespun bedgown. But shall I ever forget the
beautiful curves and tint of that soft-gray broad-leafed felt hat and
feather, the elegance of the dark carriage dress that harmonized so
well with it, or the perfect glove upon the hand that was held out so
frankly to bid me good-by? No, fair British friends, it is not you that
I mean; it is those other women whom I saw, but did not know.

It is because of the average Englishwoman's sad failure in dressing
herself that the notion has got abroad that Englishmen are finer looking
than Englishwomen. For the dress of the men is notably in good taste. It
is simple, manly, neat; and although sober in tint and snug in cut, it
is likely to have its general sobriety lightened up with a little touch
of bright, warm color. On the other hand, the dress of "American" men is
generally far, very, very far, inferior to that of the women in the
corresponding conditions of life. This helps to produce the
corresponding mistaken notion that the women in "America" are handsomer
than the men; upon